Age 81. A fantastic and underrated guitar player. Started his career playing with Bobby Fuller of I Fought the Law fame, so he had been around a while. Eric Clapton was a big fan at one time.
My understanding is that he had played a gig in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington, went to bed afterwards and never woke up. Sure beats a long and painful illness, I suppose.
Anyway, here's a taste of what he was like, from Austin in 2010:
I agree. Jerry was an underrated guitar player. He was also a big fan of Mike Bloomfield. Mike played (piano of all things) on his Grape Jam album.
Originally issued as a companion album to Moby Grape's sophomore set Wow in 1968, Grape Jam remains one of the more adventurous artifacts of late-'60s rock. As much as Wow demonstrated the San Francisco quintet's awesome scope and songcraft, this improvised studio set showed the band's chops. Months before the acclaimed Super Session, Grape Jam let contemporary pop musicians stretch, experiment and cook to their hearts' content. "Boysenberry Jam," "Black Currant Jam" (Al Kooper guests on piano) and the 14-minute "Marmalade" (Mike Bloomfield guests on piano) are juicy instrumental maneuvers, while "Never" is a tough vocal blues, and the effects-laden psychedelia of "The Lake" reminds you just what coast the band comes from.
I remember in 1967 Columbia records thought they would be as big as the Beatles which was a terrible thing I suppose to hang in them.
And they released FIVE Moby Grape singles to radio stations at the same time.
I remember really liking a few of them.
RIP. Good guitar player.
I was that guy who had only just heard them in passing, as in they were playing on a stereo while my mind was focused on other things during a visit with a friend or family. Do not actually remember? (LOL) A few months ago, I picked up a two disc anthology by them and was blown away at the songwriting and the variety of the tunes on it. Only $4.00.
RIP
I agree. Jerry was an underrated guitar player. He was also a big fan of Mike Bloomfield. Mike played (piano of all things) on his Grape Jam album.
Originally issued as a companion album to Moby Grape's sophomore set Wow in 1968, Grape Jam remains one of the more adventurous artifacts of late-'60s rock. As much as Wow demonstrated the San Francisco quintet's awesome scope and songcraft, this improvised studio set showed the band's chops. Months before the acclaimed Super Session, Grape Jam let contemporary pop musicians stretch, experiment and cook to their hearts' content. "Boysenberry Jam," "Black Currant Jam" (Al Kooper guests on piano) and the 14-minute "Marmalade" (Mike Bloomfield guests on piano) are juicy instrumental maneuvers, while "Never" is a tough vocal blues, and the effects-laden psychedelia of "The Lake" reminds you just what coast the band comes from.
Thanks Miss Pix. Gonna have to hunt this down.
@pixielf I often wondered about how the Grape Jam sessions came to be...it is peculiar that you can get Mike Bloomfield involved in your session and he plays piano rather than guitar. Maybe he felt with the band having 3 guitarists already he wanted to play a dissimilar instrument? That's only a guess.
But yes, Jerry Miller was a huge Mike Bloomfield fan. I sort of think all the Bay Area guitarists worth their salt were huge fans of Mike. I know Santana, Jerry Garcia, and John Cipollina were and Jorma Kaukonen spoke very highly of him when I took a guitar clinic with him in March of 2009. Mike Bloomfield's influence was enormous.
Is this the collection? If so, the sound on it is great, remastered from the 2 track stereo masters. Worth searching for
Is this the collection? If so, the sound on it is great, remastered from the 2 track stereo masters. Worth searching for
Yeppers
Watched a "History Of Moby Grape Part 1" last night on YouTube.
@jack_frost I asked my good friend, David Dann who wrote Guitar King about Michael, why Michael played the piano. This was his reponse.
"I think MB played piano on the record because he thought Jerry was a fine guitarist and didn't want to take that role from him. Plus, I think he just wanted to play piano! It's interesting that if you listen closely you can hear Michael at one point asking Jerry about his Gibson L-5, whether he had problems with feedback. MB also had an L-5 at one point (photos of him playing one with the Flag on stage at the Fillmore) and he must have had that issue, as he played very loud.
I have Moby Grape's first record on vinyl and to be honest I never have quite got all the hype. Just never did much for me. I did see Jerry Miller twice in the Bay area. First time I'm guessing was 2009, at a funky bar out in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Don Quixote's (now Felton Music Hall). Jerry was VERY good that night, just really burned, I was very impressed with him. The second time was probably 2014, The Redwood City Blues Jam. Jerry's first set was quite good. I noticed him pounding shots of tequila at the bar between sets. By the time of the second set he was so drunk that he was staggering onstage, in fact at one point he stumbled so badly that he almost knocked over his bass player. Hate to knock the recently departed, just giving honest reporting of what I saw. Jerry was never asked back to the weekly Redwood City Blues Jam. Despite all that, even when drunk, he played pretty well. As they say........"like riding a bicycle"..........
